The Anatomy of a Calling: A Doctor's Journey from the Head to the Heart and a Prescription for Finding Your Life's Purpose

by Lissa Rankin

Overview

We are all, every single one of us, heroes. We are all on what Joseph Campbell calls “a hero’s journey;” we are all on a mission to step into our true nature and fulfill the assignment our souls were sent to Earth to fulfill. Navigating the hero’s journey, Lissa Rankin, MD, argues, is one of the cornerstones of living a meaningful, authentic, healthy life.

In clear, engaging prose, Lissa describes her entire spiritual journey for the first time—beginning with what she calls her “perfect storm” of events—and recounts the many transformative experiences that led to a profound awakening of her soul. Through her father’s death, her daughter’s birth, career victories and failures, and an ongoing struggle to identify as both a doctor and a healer, Lissa discovers a powerful self-awareness.

As she shares her story, she encourages you to find out where you are on your own journey, offering inspiring guideposts and practices along the way. With compelling lessons on trusting intuition, surrendering to love, and learning to see adversity as an opportunity for soul growth, The Anatomy of a Calling invites you to make a powerful shift in consciousness and reach your highest destiny.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781623365745
Publisher:	Harmony/Rodale
Publication date:	12/29/2015
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Lissa Rankin, MD, is the author of the New York Times bestseller Mind Over Medicine and The Fear Cure, and is the focus of the National Public Television pledge specials Heal Yourself: Mind Over Medicine and The Fear Cure. Dr. Rankin is also the founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute, where she trains physicians and other health care providers about the intersection of science and spirituality and the 6 Steps to Healing Yourself, alongside other pioneers in the field of mind-body medicine. She lives in Marin County, California.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Anatomy of a Calling"
by .
Copyright © 2015 Lissa Rankin.
Excerpted by permission of Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Reading Group Guide

In The Anatomy of a Calling, Lissa Rankin, MD, makes a simple yet revolutionary claim: Every single one of us is a hero. We are all on what Joseph Campbell calls “a hero’s journey”—a mission to step into our true nature and fulfill the assignment our souls were sent to Earth to realize and complete. Navigating the hero’s journey and giving in to our respective callings, Lissa argues, are cornerstones of living a meaningful, authentic, healthy life.

In clear, engaging prose, Lissa—author of the New York Times bestseller Mind Over Medicine—describes her entire spiritual journey and recounts the many transformative experiences that led to a profound awakening of her soul. Through her father’s death, her daughter’s birth, career victories and failures, a strained marriage, growing debt, and an ongoing struggle to identify as both a doctor and a healer, Lissa discovers a powerful self-awareness.

More than a memoir, The Anatomy of a Calling is a roadmap to your own awakening. As she shares her story, Lissa encourages you to find out where you are on your own journey, offering Hero’s Guideposts and prescriptive Hero’s Practices along the way. With compelling lessons on trusting intuition, learning to see adversity as an opportunity for soul growth, and surrendering to love, The Anatomy of a Calling invites you to make a powerful shift in consciousness and reach your highest destiny.

1. This book hinges on the claim that “We are all, every single one of us, heroes.” What does it mean to you to be a hero? In what areas of your life or of the world might you work to be a positive force? Take a moment to think about what your calling might be. Consider Lissa’s childhood persona as the Squirrel Girl and dig deep to remember the unbridled passions you embodied and expressed outwardly as a child.

2. Explore the revelation Lissa has after her father passes away: “To be cured is to be free of disease, but to be healed means to become whole.” Do you agree or disagree? Keep this statement—and your views on it—in mind as you work through the text, and note if and how your position changes.

3. What might it take for you to consider your own “perfect storm,” big or small, a positive occurrence? Consider how you might reframe your struggle and sorrow into meaningful action, both in your hero’s journey and your everyday life.

4. After Lissa leaves medicine and the “anesthesia” wears off, she notices things she never had before, both in her environment and in herself. Take a moment to fully experience, revel in, and ponder the environment that surrounds you on a daily basis. What are a few things you hadn’t noticed before? What effect does this environment have on your mood and your actions?

5. Why do you think that the physicians in Lissa’s circle and beyond—as well as Lissa herself, at first—have such an aversion to alternative, mind-body medicine? Might fear have something to do with it? Discuss why or why not. Can you think of a time a belief of yours was totally turned on its head in a similar way?

6. If the Universe is asking each of us to embark on a specific, Divine journey, why do you think the hero’s path is laden with so many obstacles? Recount some of Lissa’s obstacles and how they made her stronger.

7. Before reading this book, how did you define “ego”? Consider how the broader definition of the ego, or the small self, has affected your life. Notice and reflect on the motivations behind damaging or negative thoughts that you might have been repeating for years.

8. How did you react to Lissa’s accounts of calling whales, bending spoons, and practicing other “white magic”? Did these examples surprise and inspire you or bring out your inner skeptic? Explore what this might mean.

9. Lissa focuses on the medical community and the transformation she hopes it will go through. What industries, groups, or aspects of your life would benefit from individuals uniting around a common intention, rather than battling for and from polarizing sides? Keep in mind the false unity of those in Vonnegut’s “granfalloons.”

10. Bring to mind a hero from pop culture. How does Lissa’s hero journey align with theirs? How does it differ? How might yours?

Editorial Reviews

10/12/2015
Rankin (Mind over Medicine), founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute, shares her colorful and emotional journey of fighting the pressure to suppress feelings of grief, remorse, and sadness when dealing with her patients. Unsatisfied with the emotional distance required in her job, Rankin leaves traditional medicine and starts down a variety of healing paths (for herself and in the service of others), precipitated by the death of her father, the birth of her daughter, and a health emergency involving her brother. Rankin shares specific methods for learning to home in on one’s inner hero through mediation and introspective thinking. Readers who seek more information and methodology regarding mind/body healing and health through diverse spiritual practices will find Rankin’s story fascinating. Rankin speaks from her heart throughout this telling memoir of spiritual discovery and deliberate step-by-step decisions. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Poignant and powerful, this book works equally as a memoir and a self-help guide. Yet there is also an undefinable third thing within its covers. It isn't only a guide to the transition into one's calling. Potentially it is itself part of that transition, shifting reality for those who read it.” —Charles Eisenstein, author of The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible

“If you combined Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, Cheryl Strayed's Wild, and James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy, you'd get Lissa Rankin's The Anatomy of a Calling. Although this book is about Lissa and her story, you won't doubt for one minute that it's really about you and your story. Much more than a memoir, this is a road map for those on the spiritual path who sense that they're being called to fulfill a sacred mission. Loaded with nurturing comfort along with practical tools for navigating your hero's journey, this book will help you become a miracle worker at a time when we need miracles!” —Marci Shimoff, New York Times bestselling author of Happy for No Reason

“Lissa Rankin has written a brave, deeply personal book. We all struggle with finding our purpose—yet we all have hidden strengths that can be uncovered and set free. The Anatomy of a Calling is the practical guide to bringing greater meaning to our lives.” —Chris Guillebeau, New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup and The Happiness of Pursuit

“In this memoir Lissa Rankin MD offers us a deeply honest and personal account of The Hero’s Journey, the universal path each of us travels towards an authentic life. At critical steps of the way she shares Guideposts and Practices to help us each travel our own Hero’s Journey to our own unique destination. Anatomy of a calling is a gift, a companion for the road for anyone who feels they are traveling uncharted territory alone.” —Rachel Naomi Remen MD, Author, Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings

“Every once in awhile a book comes along that feels like that companion you've been longing for to hold your hand on the incredible journey of life. Lissa Rankin has beautifully written The Anatomy of a Calling for you to transform your desire to do and be more into knowing, once and for all, your sacred purpose for being here. Enjoy this heartfelt journey as you realize that you are the hero in the story she shares.” —Kristine Carlson, co-author to the Don't Sweat the Small Stuff books

“I made the mistake of starting The Anatomy of a Calling near bedtime. Don’t do this unless you are willing to lose a lot of sleep! Lissa’s story is absolutely riveting, moving and so wise. Read this book and be awakened to all that life wants for you.” —Jennifer Louden, author of The Woman’s Comfort Book and A Year of Daily Joy

“A poignant, courageous and soul-stirring invitation to your own unique true-path. What is so magnificent about this book is that it refuses to distinguish a life emblazoned with sacred purpose from a life of vulnerable and deep feeling. Our true-path is not a head-trip, not a quest for egoic glory, not a hyped up stage show, it is a journey to and through the heart, a resonant return to the callings and pathways encoded in the bones of our being. We spend too much time listening to the misidentified outer world, while our greater story is hungrily laying in wait within us. Read Lissa's brave story of unfolding, and you will surely awaken your own. By the time you finish this book, the soulular phone will be ringing off the hook, reminding you of why you are here. Answer the bloody phone!” —Jeff Brown, author of Soulshaping and An Uncommon Bond

“Callings do not go away no matter how long it takes, how scared you feel or how much you try to resist. Lissa's brilliant and very wise book is a vulnerably powerfull support and catalyst for you discovering your calling, and living and being your calling.” —SARK artist & author Succulent Wild LOVE

“Lissa Rankin is the real deal. The Anatomy of a Calling made me cry and laugh...it is so honest and brave. More than a memoir, this beautifully crafted book is a fearless guide to the Great Unknown. The simple practices that Lissa suggests at the end of each chapter are portals to your own inner guidance. Gentle, hopeful, and clear...this book is destined to become a classic.” —Joan Borysenko, PH.D., author of the New York Times bestselling book Minding the Body, Mending the Mind

From the Publisher

I made the mistake of starting The Anatomy of a Calling near bedtime. Don't do this unless you are willing to lose a lot of sleep! Lissa's story is absolutely riveting, moving and so wise. Read this book and be awakened to all that life wants for you.

author of The Woman’s Comfort Book and A Yea Jennifer Louden

Every once in awhile a book comes along that feels like that companion you've been longing for to hold your hand on the incredible journey of life. Lissa Rankin has beautifully written The Anatomy of a Calling for you to transform your desire to do and be more into knowing, once and for all, your sacred purpose for being here. Enjoy this heartfelt journey as you realize that you are the hero in the story she shares.

co-author to the Don't Sweat the Small Stuff book Kristine Carlson

Lissa Rankin has written a brave, deeply personal book. We all struggle with finding our purpose--yet we all have hidden strengths that can be uncovered and set free. The Anatomy of a Calling is the practical guide to bringing greater meaning to our lives.

New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Star Chris Guillebeau

If you combined Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, Cheryl Strayed's Wild, and James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy, you'd get Lissa Rankin's The Anatomy of a Calling. Although this book is about Lissa and her story, you won't doubt for one minute that it's really about you and your story. Much more than a memoir, this is a road map for those on the spiritual path who sense that they're being called to fulfill a sacred mission. Loaded with nurturing comfort along with practical tools for navigating your hero's journey, this book will help you become a miracle worker at a time when we need miracles!

New York Times bestselling author of Happy for No Marci Shimoff

Poignant and powerful, this book works equally as a memoir and a self-help guide. Yet there is also an undefinable third thing within its covers. It isn't only a guide to the transition into one's calling. Potentially it is itself part of that transition, shifting reality for those who read it.

author of The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Charles Eisenstein